Your two-year guarantee

Who you bought from

Your contract is with Joseph Schembri, trading as Dickens, of Bisazza Street, Sliema, SLM 1640, Malta. VAT number MT10611512.

Dickens is a sole trader, so the guarantee below is given by an individual rather than a company. That makes no difference to your rights; it just means you know exactly who is answerable.

Your two-year legal guarantee

Everything Dickens sells you as a consumer comes with a two-year legal guarantee. It is free, it is automatic, and it is given by us (the shop you bought from), not by the manufacturer.

Consumer Affairs Act (Cap. 378), art 78(1).

What it covers

For two years from the day the goods are delivered to you, we are responsible if the goods turn out not to be as they should have been when we handed them over. That means:

• they match the description, type and quantity we sold you
• they are fit for the ordinary purpose goods of that kind are used for
• they match any sample or model we showed you
• they come with the accessories and instructions you would reasonably expect
• their durability, functionality, compatibility and security are what is normal for goods of that kind
• they are fit for any particular purpose you told us about before buying, and which we accepted
• where the goods have digital parts, they get the updates we said they would

Cap. 378, art 73.

It also covers faulty installation, where we installed the goods, or where you installed them and the instructions were wrong (art 73(7)).

For the first year, we have to prove it was your fault

If a fault appears in the first twelve months after delivery, the law assumes it was there all along and it is on us to show otherwise.

After twelve months and up to twenty-four, the guarantee still applies in full, but if we disagree about the cause, it is on you to show the fault was there at delivery.

Cap. 378, art 80(1).

What we will do about it

You come to us, not the manufacturer.

First, you choose repair or replacement. It is your choice, not ours. We can only push back if the one you chose is impossible, or costs disproportionately more than the other, and if we do, we have to explain why.

Whatever we do costs you nothing. Not the postage, not the carriage, not the labour, not the parts. If a replacement has to be taken out and refitted, that is on us too. We take the faulty item back at our expense, and we do not charge you for having used the item before it failed.

Cap. 378, arts 74(1), 75(1)–(5), and the definition of "free of charge" in art 72(1).

Then, if repair or replacement does not work out, you can ask for money. Either a reduction in the price, keeping the goods, or cancelling the sale and getting a refund. You can go straight to this if:

• we did not complete the repair or replacement, or refused to
• the fault came back after we tried to fix it
• the fault is serious enough to justify going straight there
• we have said, or it is obvious, that we will not fix it in a reasonable time or without causing you significant trouble

Cap. 378, art 74(3).

We cannot refuse to cancel the sale by saying the fault is minor unless we can prove it is minor. That burden is on us.

Cap. 378, art 76(2).

Please tell us within two months of noticing

To use these rights, the law asks you to tell us about the fault on a durable medium (an email is fine, a letter is fine, a text is fine) within at least two months of noticing it. Please keep a copy.

Cap. 378, art 79.

We would rather hear from you the day you notice. Email info@dickens.com.mt or telephone +356 2133 3562.

If we are talking, the clock stops

If we are in discussion with you about a fault and trying to settle it amicably, the two-year period is suspended for as long as those discussions run. You do not lose your rights because we took a while to come back to you.

Cap. 378, art 78(2). This is a Maltese addition and it is in your favour.

The manufacturer's warranty is a different thing, and it is extra

Many of the things we sell come with a warranty from the manufacturer: "1 year warranty", "2 years warranty", and so on.

That warranty is on top of your legal guarantee. It never replaces it, and it never shortens it.

• A product with a one-year manufacturer warranty still carries the full two-year legal guarantee from us. If it fails at fourteen months, come to us. The manufacturer's cover has ended; ours has not.
• A manufacturer warranty may be better than the legal guarantee in some ways: longer, or covering things the legal guarantee does not. Where it is, use it.
• Nothing in any warranty, ours or a manufacturer's, can take away your legal rights. Any term that tries to is simply not binding on you.

Cap. 378, art 82: a commercial guarantee is an "additional guarantee" placing you in a more advantageous position than the law gives. Art 85: a commercial guarantee cannot directly or indirectly exclude or limit your rights, and any attempt to is null and ineffective. Art 81: any agreement that waters down Part X to your detriment does not bind you.

Where a manufacturer gives a durability guarantee, you can go to the manufacturer directly for repair or replacement for that guarantee's whole period, as well as coming to us.

Cap. 378, art 90.

Spare parts and repairs

Where goods need maintenance or replacement parts, the law requires those parts and an appropriate repair service to be available for a reasonable time after delivery.

Cap. 378, art 93.

We have a service department. If something we sold you needs looking at, bring it in.

What is not covered

The legal guarantee covers faults that were there at delivery, even if they only showed up later. It does not cover:

• damage you caused: drops, water, misuse, or repairs by somebody else
• normal wear and tear
• consumable parts wearing out through ordinary use, such as batteries losing capacity over their normal cycle life
• a fault you knew about when you bought: for example, where we sold you an item as damaged or ex-display and told you what was wrong with it, and you accepted it on that basis

Second-hand goods get the same two years. Maltese law makes no reduction for second-hand goods sold in a shop. (The only carve-out is goods sold at public auction, which is not something we do.)

Cap. 378, art 72(5)(c).

Ex-display stock

We sometimes sell ex-display items. Where we do, the full two-year legal guarantee applies, exactly as above, unless the specific fault or wear is one we told you about and you agreed to buy the item on that basis, which is the same "fault you knew about" exclusion already set out under "What is not covered" above. If we have not told you about a fault, "ex-display" alone does not reduce your rights, and the same rule as second-hand goods applies: no automatic reduction just because the item was on display.

Cap. 378, art 73 (conformity requirements and the accepted-deviation exclusion) and art 72(5)(c) (no reduction for goods not new).

How to make a claim

1. Tell us. Email info@dickens.com.mt or telephone +356 2133 3562, or come into Bisazza Street, Sliema. Please do this within two months of noticing the fault.
2. Tell us what is wrong and roughly when it started. A photo or a short video helps.
3. Bring in the item if you can, or we will arrange collection.
4. We acknowledge your claim the same day we see it, and we tell you what we propose to do within 3 working days. If it needs longer (a manufacturer has to look at it, for instance), we will tell you that.
5. You do not need the box. We always give you a receipt when you buy from us, paper or by email, but even if you cannot put your hands on it, you do not need it for a claim: we can usually find the sale from your name, the serial number, or your account.

If we cannot agree

Tell us first; most disagreements are a misunderstanding.

If we still cannot sort it out, you are not stuck with our answer. Full contact details for the Office for Consumer Affairs, the Complaints and Conciliation Directorate (Malta's ADR body), the Consumer Claims Tribunal, and how each of them works, are on our complaints and dispute resolution page. In short:

Office for Consumer Affairs, Malta Competition and Consumer Affairs Authority (MCCAA). Website: mccaa.org.mt

There is also the Consumer Claims Tribunal, which handles claims up to €10,000 (Cap. 378, art 20). It is designed to be used without a lawyer.

We do not commit in advance to Alternative Dispute Resolution (each complaint is discussed with you first, case by case), but if we cannot settle a complaint directly with you, we will always write to you, by email, to say whether we will take part in ADR for it. Our complaints page has the full detail.